Q&A: What we know about Boris Nemtsov's murder investigation

Five days after the murder of Boris Nemtsov, the Russian authorities have yet to identify any suspects - let alone make an arrest. The Russian opposition leader was laid to rest on Tuesday and thousands made their way to the Sakharov Centre, a museum of Russia's human rights movement, to pay their final respects.

Meanwhile, his final days have become the subject of rumour and speculation. Here is a look at what is known - and what is not.

What happened in the last hour of his life?

Nemtsov had a late dinner with Anna Duritskaya, his Ukrainian girlfriend, at Bosco, a restaurant in the GUM mall facing Red Square and opposite the eastern wall of the Kremlin. After finishing around 11pm, they left the restaurant, walked down Red Square and towards the Moscow river. Nemtsov had an apartment on Malaya Ordynka, in an upmarket area south of the Moscow river. When they were about 100 metres across the Great Moskvoretsky Bridge, Nemtsov was shot. Investigators and Ms Duritskaya have said he was shot from behind. Six bullets hit him in the back and in the head, and he died shortly after at the scene on the bridge.

When was he killed?

Police have said that they received several calls at 23:35 reporting an incident on the bridge, and that officers arrived there 10 minutes later. According to a video released by broadcaster TVC, which the television channel says is security camera footage showing the crime, the killing happened at 23:31, and police arrived at the scene about 12 minutes later.

Were there eyewitnesses?

Ms Duritskaya, who was walking next to Nemtsov when he was shot, was questioned by police and held under conditions resembling house arrest for more than two days. She was released and flew home to Ukraine on Monday. In a television interview before her departure, she said she did not see the killer but only heard a popping sound and then Nemtsov collapsed, so the killer must have come from behind them. It is assumed that the person came up through a stairwell leading to the bridge from a road below. Regarding the killer's escape, Ms Duritskaya said she only remembered seeing a white car.

What evidence and leads are there?

Police cordoned off the crime scene on Friday night and appeared to be examining it. But, before morning broke, a cleaning crew hosed down the area with a high pressure cleaner. The authorities later said all traces of the crime had been washed away by rain. According to the police, six bullet casings were found at the scene, four of which were made in the Russian cities of Chelyabinsk in 1986, and another two in Tula in 1992. The police said they were fired from a Makarov pistol. Based on Ms Duritskaya's testimony, the police searched for the white car in which the gunman escaped. They checked a few vehicles that appeared to match the description, but later said the drivers and owners had nothing to do with the murder.

Is there video footage of the murder?

The spot where Nemtsov was killed is covered by multiple security cameras. But the authorities said all cameras close by had been switched off for maintenance or other reasons. This was later disputed by a municipal government department, which insisted the cameras had been working properly and that video surveillance so close to the Kremlin would never be interrupted.

It said the footage had been handed over to the Federal Security Bureau, the successor to the KGB. Television channel TVC has published a video it says shows the murder. The grainy footage appears to have been recorded by a security camera on the far end of the bridge and has been published with a digital timer added by the TV station. In it, two pedestrians are seen walking across the bridge along the path Nemtsov and Ms Duritskaya took. Shortly before they reach the spot where Nemtsov was shot, a snow clearing truck pulls up beside them and then stops right next to them, obscuring what happens next. Shortly afterwards, the snow truck starts pulling away, revealing only one of the two people standing. A car approaching from behind briefly stops to allow another person on foot - who also emerged from behind the snow truck - to get in. It then quickly drives away.

Who killed Nemtsov and why?

We don't know. The opposition has pointed the finger at President Vladimir Putin, arguing that an opposition leader likely to have been under surveillance could only have been killed with the knowledge or support of the security services. Others say that by branding the opposition a 'fifth column' and 'traitors' Mr Putin had encouraged violence against them by radicals.

Meanwhile, government loyalists have called the murder "a provocation" aimed at blackening Mr Putin's name, a theory which the president himself appeared to support. Some state media and nationalist commentators have accused the CIA, the Ukrainian government or Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled former tycoon, of ordering the murder. The investigators say they are looking into several different theories, including the 'provocation' theory, the possible involvement of an Islamist terrorist, a link to Ukraine, or a Russian nationalist.

What about the Ukraine report?

Some believe Nemtsov was murdered because he was working on a report about Russian soldiers in Ukraine - a taboo topic for a Putin government that continues to deny it has sent any soldiers to fight there. Nemtsov himself said last week he was researching this, but it is unclear how far he had progressed. Police have searched his apartment and taken his laptop, which friends say was likely to contain any relevant material - if he had assembled any.

In an interview with the Financial Times, days before his death, Nemtsov mentioned Russia's fallen soldiers in Ukraine, and the risks they posed to Mr Putin. "They are burying them quietly, because he understands that," he said. "That's why he hides this. I am working on this now."

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